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When Rebecca Pariso agreed to join a team of educators tasked in late 2019 with California鈥檚 new mathematics framework, she said she expected some controversy.

But she didn鈥檛 expect her work would be in the .

鈥淲e were transforming math education, and change is hard and scary,鈥� said Pariso, a math teacher at Hueneme Elementary School District. 鈥淓specially if you don鈥檛 understand why that change needs to occur. But I didn鈥檛 expect it to go this far.鈥�

Every , a group of educators comes together to update the state鈥檚 math curriculum framework. This particular update has attracted extra attention, and controversy, because of perceived changes it makes to how 鈥済ifted鈥� students progress 鈥� and because it pushes Algebra 1 back to 9th grade, de-emphasizes calculus, and applies social justice principles to math lessons.

Their intent, the framework鈥檚 designers say, is to maintain rigor while also helping remedy California鈥檚 achievement gaps for , and students, which remain some of the largest in the nation.

At the heart of the wrangling lies a broad agreement about at least one thing:
The way California public schools teach math isn鈥檛 working. On national standardized tests, California ranks in the among all states and U.S. territories for 8th grade math scores.

Yet for all the sound and fury, the , about 800-pages long, is little more than a set of suggestions. Its designers are revising it now and will subject it to 60 more days of public review. Once it鈥檚 approved in July, districts may adopt as much or as little of the framework as they choose 鈥� and can disregard it completely without any penalty.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not mandated that you use the framework,鈥� said framework team member Dianne Wilson, a program specialist at Elk Grove Unified. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a concern that it will be implemented unequally.鈥�

District officials at Cupertino Union School District, for instance, sent families a letter in May saying despite the state framework, it doesn鈥檛 plan to 鈥渕ake shifts to our math courses in the foreseeable future.鈥�

Pariso wanted to be a voice for her students among the 20-member team. In her 7,500-student school district in Ventura County, 42% of students are English Learners and 84% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. She said students like hers have long been dismissed as lacking math skills due to language barriers or factors outside the classroom like housing or food insecurity. The result, she said: In a state that鈥檚 home to giant tech companies, her students are alienated from careers in science, math, engineering and technology.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a huge problem with math instruction right now,鈥� Pariso said. 鈥淭he way things are set up, it鈥檚 not giving everybody a chance to learn math at the highest levels.鈥�

A persisting achievement gap

Mariah Rose, a third-year applied math major at UC Berkeley, said she didn鈥檛 have another Black classmate in any of her math classes until this semester.

鈥淭here鈥檚 one other Black student in my class right now, and that鈥檚 just crazy to me,鈥� said Rose. 鈥淭he number of Black and Brown people in math is so low.鈥�

Rose, who is half Black and half Latino, said this is nothing new. She said she was the only Black female student in her advanced math classes during high school. And her successes in math make her an outlier in California鈥檚 public school system where Black and Latino students score lower on standardized tests.

But the question of how to close this gap has opened up another divide between math education experts and academic mathematicians.

In July, hundreds of mathematics and science professors signed an calling on the state to replace the proposed framework. Academic mathematicians say their input is valuable because not only have they gone through the entire math pipeline, but they also know what elementary math builds up to.

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CalMatters

, a mathematics professor at UC Irvine, said the authors of the committee should have consulted more experts in the STEM fields who are more familiar with the advanced education and training students need after high school.

鈥淭he process should have definitely involved STEM faculty from top CA universities with direct knowledge of what is needed for success as STEM majors,鈥� she emailed. 鈥淚t is absurd this was not done.鈥�

And some education specialists say the framework would hurt historically marginalized students the most by injecting too many social justice related topics that distract from the math.

鈥淭he way you get social justice in mathematics is to teach the kids math,鈥� said Tom Loveless, a retired math education expert who worked for the Brookings Institution, a national think tank. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not by dressing up mathematics in social justice.鈥�

Jo Boaler is the framework鈥檚 primary author and a math education professor at Stanford University. She and other advocates of the framework say university professors 鈥� who work with older and more motivated students who elect to take higher level math courses 鈥� might not have the insight needed to build a K-12 curriculum, especially for historically marginalized student groups.

鈥淲e understand education, and they have no experience studying education,鈥� Boaler said. 鈥淢athematicians sit on high and say this is what is happening in schools.鈥�

Ben Ford, a mathematics professor at Sonoma State University and one of the framework鈥檚 authors, said he鈥檚 also optimistic that, especially at the Cal State Universities that prioritize instruction over research, the divide between mathematicians and math educators is narrowing.

鈥淭he mathematics community cares a lot these days about broadening participation,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think we鈥檙e getting a lot more sophisticated about how our methods contribute to exclusion.鈥�

鈥淕ifted鈥� math students controversy

A key sticking point in the approval process has been the framework鈥檚 recommendation that teachers refrain from labeling students as 鈥渘aturally talented鈥� in math. This has led to accusations from parents and educators that it holds back 鈥済ifted鈥� students.

鈥淗olding back high achievers makes them achieve more?鈥� said Avery Wang, a parent of a Palo Alto Unified student. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 exactly the same philosophy that鈥檚 being promoted in the math framework.鈥�

Boaler said the revised draft will contain more suggestions for advancing students more quickly in math based on merit.

The framework also calls for more relatable and practical instruction, whether that be through using more inclusive pronouns or word problems related to real-world issues like housing and climate change.

To critics, that sounds perilously like dumbing down math.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e changing math to make it math appreciation,鈥� said Michael Malione, a parent in the Piedmont City Unified School District who works as a private math tutor. 鈥淎 part of math is learning things that are not authentic to life.鈥�

Malione and other parents say the framework does a disservice to historically marginalized student groups by offering them a simplified version of math that fails to prepare them for the challenges of a career in science, tech, engineering or math.

鈥淢ath is gonna be hard for students who don鈥檛 enjoy it as much,鈥� Malione said. 鈥淏ut that鈥檚 the price you pay for giving them an opportunity to study STEM.鈥�

Advocates of the proposed framework argue that critics are too fixated on protecting students who are already doing well in math. In California, these students tend to be white, East Asian or come from more affluent households.

鈥淭he people who advocate for traditional methods see the goal of math instruction as finding the brilliant ones and helping the other ones just get through life,鈥� Ford said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e thinking about the people we miss. That鈥檚 the motivation for a lot of us working on the framework.鈥�

Rose, the UC Berkeley math major, said she has mixed feelings. She agrees with the framework鈥檚 recommendation to delay more advanced math classes and avoid labeling students based on their math abilities at younger ages. But she isn鈥檛 sure if she would be where she is if she hadn鈥檛 been accelerated into a higher-level math class in 6th grade.

鈥淚t was a game changer,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if I would鈥檝e pursued math if I hadn鈥檛 advanced so early.鈥�

Blending math and open-ended inquiry

The framework would not forbid districts from accelerating students in middle school. It does, however, recommend that middle-school students all take the same sequence of 鈥渋ntegrated鈥� math classes that blend concepts from arithmetic, algebra and other subjects with the goal of cultivating a foundation and comfort level with numbers.

On top of that, the framework recommends that schools postpone offering students Algebra 1 until 9th grade or later, when it says more students are likely to be able to master the material.

鈥淲hen kids struggle, they immediately say 鈥業 don鈥檛 have a math brain,鈥欌�� Boaler said. 鈥淭hat changes how the brain operates.鈥�

Delaying Algebra 1 until 9th grade, however, would require other high school math classes like Geometry, Algebra 2 and Pre-Calculus to be compressed so that students can reach AP Calculus by 12th grade. At San Francisco Unified, which implemented this pathway in 2014, students took a one-year class that combined Algebra 2 and Pre-calculus.

Jitomirskaya said that waiting until high school for Algebra 1 would result in accelerated pre-calculus courses that would be too difficult for most students.

Norm Matloff, a computer science professor at UC Davis and a critic of the framework, said compressed mathematics classes are 鈥渄angerous鈥� because they inevitably leave out parts of the curriculum. He said taking classes like Geometry and Algebra in the same year as two separate, year-long classes is a better idea.

For Boaler and her co-authors, integrating traditionally separate math classes goes hand-in-hand with open-ended inquiry. For example, instead of assigning repetitive problem sets, teachers would use collaborative projects such as calculating the living wage in the students鈥� communities. Open-ended assignments like this don鈥檛 necessarily have a single right answer in the back of the book.

鈥淢ath can be very boring for kids,鈥� Boaler said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just about doing these short questions that don鈥檛 have any meaning.鈥�

Some education experts and math professors say the framework鈥檚 emphasis on open-ended assignments just leads to confusion, especially for struggling and historically marginalized students.

Loveless said teaching through open-ended problems can make students feel lost. He suggests teachers use lecture-style lessons to introduce students to concepts.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a long standing philosophical dispute,鈥� he said. 鈥淢ath education departments tend to be very progressive in their points of view.鈥�

The calculus calculus

The framework also creates a new high school data science course as an alternative to calculus. The authors say this course will result in a more diverse student body pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering or mathematics. But some experts say calculus is vital to prepare students for a STEM career.

鈥淚f you want a job in data science that isn鈥檛 replaceable by a computer in the next couple of years, you need to take calculus,鈥� said Jitomirskaya, the UC Irvine math professor. 鈥淭hey want a data science course that is completely dumbed down.鈥�

State data indicate that not only do relatively few students take calculus in high school, but the number of students enrolling in the most advanced calculus classes 鈥� already just 3.7% in the school year beginning in 2014 鈥� dropped in four years to a mere 3.4%.

The framework鈥檚 authors counter that taking calculus in high school shouldn鈥檛 be necessary to enter a STEM field in college and beyond, especially because calculus can be a barrier to entry for Black and Latino students.

鈥淒erivatives and integrals aren鈥檛 important to get into college. The college credit and the AP exam are more important,鈥� Ford said. 鈥淢any of us at the college level would prefer students to come to us more ready to take Calculus 1.鈥�

In fact, the University of California and Cal State systems have taken steps to as an admissions requirement.

Rose, the UC Berkeley student, said she didn鈥檛 come to appreciate the beauty of calculus until she reached college. In fact, she said her classmates who came to college without having taken AP Calculus sometimes scored higher than she did in their university-level calculus courses.

鈥淐alculus has this whole reputation of getting you into college, but calculus is so much more than that,鈥� Rose said.

Is it 鈥榳oke鈥� math?

Other critics lambaste the new framework as 鈥渨oke math鈥� that 鈥溾�� with social justice lessons and left-wing ideology.

An signed by over a thousand STEM experts condemned the framework for suggesting that teachers highlight the 鈥渃ontributions that historically marginalized people have made to mathematics,鈥� 鈥渢ake a justice-oriented perspective at any grade level,鈥� and use inclusive gender pronouns.

A Wall Street Journal editorial that helped spark national interest in California鈥檚 math curriculum and conservative publications like have objected to the framework鈥檚 occasional citation of a manual that aims to show math teachers how they can use their class to combat white supremacy. The manual asserts that current math pedagogy in the U.S. reinforces white supremacy in a variety of ways; its critics say numbers are numbers, so how can there be racism in math?

The authors removed references to the manual shortly thereafter.

Julie Leopo

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CalMatters

Matloff, the UC Davis professor, said he has no problem with inclusive language, but that 鈥渨okism鈥� shouldn鈥檛 come at the cost of the math. 鈥淚 have a problem when people make an obsession out of race,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey lose sight of the issue, which is to teach kids math.鈥�

Critics have also attacked recommended assignments that try to apply math concepts to social science topics.

But Brian Lindamann, one of the authors of the framework, said divisions between the two fields are often 鈥渁rtificial.鈥�

鈥淔or example, something like understanding how cost-of-living works 鈥� that鈥檚 both mathematics and social justice,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he intersectionalities of many of these disciplines are the very things that propel society as a whole. Why not have an economics teacher and a math teacher teach a class together?鈥�

And while some critics roll their eyes at the idea of, for instance, using 鈥渢hey鈥� and 鈥渢hem鈥� as a non-gendered singular pronoun, educators like Pariso say insensitive language can be a significant obstacle to learning.

She noted that an earlier draft of the framework included sample lessons on calculating a school cafeteria鈥檚 food waste 鈥� but that many of her students would have found the entire exercise alienating because they lack food security at home.

Bigger, structural math problems

The framework committee met several times over eight months, in-person at first and then virtually once the COVID-19 pandemic gripped California. Pariso describes the meetings as an 鈥渋ntense鈥� collaboration between math teachers, school district administrators and math education experts.

She and the committee gave their final recommendations for the state鈥檚 math framework to a writing team during a series of meetings that ended in December 2020. These authors, five professors from across the state, wrote an 800-page draft that generated both praise and criticism.

After absorbing blowback in hours of public testimony, the California State Board of Education delayed the approval process by two months.

Whatever impact a new framework has, California public schools still face systemic challenges.

Aris Biegler, a Los Angeles math teacher who helped design the framework, said smaller classes are key: 鈥淚f a kid isn鈥檛 comfortable multiplying six times four, I can sort of reinforce them without shaming them.鈥�

But amid an , teaching is less appealing for those graduating college with STEM degrees.

鈥淚 have students who are very passionate about teaching and would very much consider teaching high school,鈥� Jitomirskaya said. 鈥淏ut they would prefer the higher paying STEM jobs.鈥�

Even so 鈥� and acknowledging that not all districts will fully implement all the new framework鈥檚 recommendations 鈥� Pariso said it鈥檚 a step in the right direction.

鈥淚 used to value and make a big deal about students who got 100%,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut after reflecting and learning about Jo Boaler鈥檚 tools, I realized I needed to take time to celebrate the students who are progressing. I don鈥檛 really talk about the one-hundred-percenters any more. I say 鈥榃ow, look how far you鈥檝e come.鈥欌��

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